A Rumble Franchisee Rebranded His Gyms. A Judge Said Not Here.

The email went out around July 1. "Rumble Tampa" was "relaunching" and "becoming TEMPER," it told members, at the "same two locations," with a "completely rebuilt experience." This was a rebuild, the message stressed, not a rebrand.

On Oct. 30, a federal judge in Tampa decided the distinction did not matter.

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted EB Rumble Franchising a preliminary injunction against its former Tampa franchisees, their owner Henry Taylor, his former operating partner Haley Hunt and their new company, Temper Studios. For two years, the order bars them from owning or working in a competing business at or within 10 miles of the old studios and other Rumble locations, from soliciting the studios' former customers and from using Rumble's trademarks.

It is a small case about two boxing studios. It is also a clean test of the clause every franchise agreement carries and most owners never expect to read twice. Boutique fitness tests it more than most categories, because the asset that matters, the member base, knows the coaches by name and can follow them down the street.

Taylor signed his first Rumble agreement in November 2021 for a studio in an Atlanta ZIP code, then moved it to downtown Tampa, according to the order. A second agreement, signed in July 2024 through another of his companies, covered a studio on South Dale Mabry Highway. Each ran 10 years, and Taylor personally guaranteed both. Rumble has about 70 active franchises, five of them in Florida, the court noted.

Hunt was operating partner and vice president of strategic growth at the two studios and taught classes there. She co-founded Temper with Taylor and Will Montanez, the court found. Taylor registered Temper as a Florida company on July 16, listing the downtown studio's address as its principal office. The studios stopped operating as Rumbles on July 18, and the franchisees told Rumble so on July 20.

One message to members announcing Temper went out through Rumble's own member-management system, according to VitalLaw's summary of the ruling. Rumble terminated both agreements in August for abandonment, which the contracts defined to include failing to operate a studio for more than two business days without consent.

What the court weighed

The franchisees argued the noncompete was unenforceable because it was too broad. The agreements define a competing business as "any fitness or exercise business," not just boxing gyms. The court was not persuaded. It found the two-year, 10-mile restriction limited and tied to interests Florida law protects: the franchise system, confidential information, the marks and the goodwill behind them.

It also found the franchisees likely breached their covenants by creating and operating a competing business, soliciting Rumble customers, keeping confidential materials and failing to disassociate from the brand. Some of the evidence came from the small stuff. Rumble window graphics stayed up at the South Tampa studio. LinkedIn profiles still listed Taylor and Hunt in their Rumble roles, and Hunt's profile photo showed her in Rumble clothing. The court rejected the argument that this was fair use of the name, because the profiles misstated a current affiliation.

Rumble did not get everything. The court found it unlikely to win its civil conspiracy claim, because under Florida law a business cannot conspire with its own agents. And one detail cut toward the defense: before it sued, Rumble had offered to sell a waiver of the immediate noncompete obligations. The court admitted that evidence but held the harm of competing against a former franchisee using Rumble's customer data would still be extremely difficult to put in dollars.

The lesson in the sequence

For franchisors, the ruling is a reminder that a carefully drafted noncompete still holds in Florida, at least at the preliminary stage. The broad definition of a competing business did not sink it.

For franchisees, the lesson is about order of operations. The members, the instructors and the lease can feel like the owner's. The contract says the customer list and the system belong to the franchisor. An owner who wants out of a system has to negotiate the exit, and the waiver Rumble once offered to sell suggests one was available, before announcing the next brand to the people on that list.

Owner exits are a running theme in boutique fitness this year. We reported in October that Orangetheory owners are walking away at renewal rather than being pushed out. Tampa shows the harder version: leaving mid-term and taking the studio with you. Courts have also been busy defining where franchise fights get heard, from a California court refusing to send cleaning franchisees to arbitration to an Ohio judge keeping a Magnolia Soap franchisee's case at home.

The injunction stays in place while the case continues. Two years is a long time for a new fitness concept with a name, an email list and nowhere within 10 miles to open.